Management Of International Trades In Wildlife And Implementation Of CITE In China

As one of the most important States involved in international trades in wild fauna and flora, China has set up a national system of legislation, administration and enforcement for management of international trades in wildlife and CITES implementation, which contributes to conservation and sustainable use of these species. However, with evolution of the convention and development of the reforms in its economic and political administration scheme, the management of international trades in wildlife and CITES implementation in China is facing several difficulty and challenges. To comply with the reforms in economy and political administration, and for better commitments to the convention by China as vice chair and a member of the Standing Committee of CITES, this thesis reviewed the general status of China s implementation of CITES and control measures on international trades in wildlife, systematically analyzed and evaluated the national legislation, institutional functioning and trans-sectoral coordination, as well as the administrative control measures. Case studies on specific species, such as elephant and musk were also conducted, which supported the conclusions from the analysis and evaluation.Findings of this thesis could be summarized as: 1. China s national legislation does not meet all requirements for implementation of CITES, legislative scope of specimens subject to permits or certificates control conflicts with the practices in' place, provisions on confiscation of illegal traded specimens and penalization on offense are incomprehensive, enforcement and inspection need to be improved; 2. China s Management Authority does not function efficiently as it has not been designated with appropriate mandates, mechanisms for coordination between governmental agencies is not in place either; 3. China s administrative measures for international trades in wildlife is not consistent with the convention, tools recommended by the convention have not been fully adopted and applied, the procedures for application and issuance of permits or certificates is too complicated, which not only facilitates the rise of illegal trades but also slows down the processing of the legal trades. Thus, induced by the black markets and stimulated by considerable profits, illegal trades in specimens of species such as musk deer and elephant are still rampant, which threatens the survival of these species and challenges the control of international trades in wildlife and implementation of the convention.To improve its commitments to the convention and the control of international trades in wildlife, the following proposed actions could be considered by China:1. Developing a national legislation system to fully meet all requirements of CITES, specific recommendations include: Identifying scope of specimens subject to control permits or certifleates: Defining and standardizing penalization on violations of CITES and legislation;3 Defining treatments on the confiscated illegally traded specimens;2. Improving its institutional functioning for implementation of CITES, recommendations to be adopted are: Designating fully mandates to its Management Authority to enable it make roles as required by the convention; Establishing an national mechanism for self-execution of CITES obligations by various governmental agencies; Establishing a national CITES coordination committee to develop collaboration mechanisms between different governmental agencies; Adopting ports designating policy and accrediting its Management Authority the right of inspection on the spots.3. Adopting and enhancing the administrative control measures, which may include: Further introducing and extending export quotas regimes; Further introducing and extending registration of certain traders and manufacturers; Further introducing and extending labeling of specimens;4. Simplifying the procedures for application and issuance of the permits or certificates by: Conducting one-...